Gold and Silver thread: Under this heading some general account may be given of gold and silver strips and threads used in connection with varieties of weaving, embroidery and twisting and plaiting or lace work. To this day, in many oriental centres where it seems that early traditions of the knowledge and the use of fabrics fully or partly woven, ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver have been maintained, the passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is still strong and prevalent.

Contents

Production

In India, the preparation of varieties of gold and silver threads is an ancient and important art. The gold wire of the manufacturer has been and is as a rule silver wire gilt, the silver wire being, of course, composed of pure silver. The wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into strip, tinsel or ribbon-like form, by passing fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a fine, smooth, round-topped anvil and beating each as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. Such strips or tinsel of wire so flattened are woven into Indian soniri, tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of golden strips, and ruperi, similar tissue of silver. Other gold and silver threads suitable for use in embroidery, pillow and needlepoint lace making, consist of fine strips of flattened wire wound round cores of orange (in the case of silver, white) silk thread so as to completely cover them. Wires flattened or partially flattened are also twisted into exceedingly fine spirals and much used for heavy embroideries.

Consumption

The demand for many kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and silver work in India is immense, and the variety of textiles so ornamented is also very great, chief amongst which are the golden or silvery tinsel fabrics known as kincobs.

Amongst Western communities the demand for gold and silver embroideries and braid lace existed chiefly in connection with naval, military and other uniforms, masonic insignia, court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes and draperies and theatrical dresses.

Technical details

The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the woven braid lace or ribbon trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold braid wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, and plated with 3 of gold. On an average each ounce troy of a bar so plated is drawn into 1500 yards of wire; and therefore about 16 grains of gold cover one metre of wire.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

From LoveToKnow 1911

GOLD AND SILVER THREAD. Under this heading some general
account may be given of gold and
silver strips, threads and gimp used in connexion with varieties
of weaving, embroidery and twisting
and plaiting or lace work. To this
day, in many oriental centres where it seems that early traditions
of the knowledge and the use of fabrics wholly or partly woven,
ornamented, and embroidered with gold and silver have been
maintained, the passion for such brilliant and costly textiles is
still strong and prevalent. One of the earliest mentions of the use
of gold in a woven fabric occurs in the description of the ephod made for Aaron (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3), "And he made the ephod
of gold, blue, and purple, and
scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into
wires (strips), to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in
the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." This is
suggestive of early Syrian or Arabic in-darning or weaving with
gold strips or tinsel. In both the Iliad and the
Odyssey allusion is frequently made to inwoven and
embroidered golden textiles. Assyrian sculpture gives an elaborately designed ornament upon the robe of
King Assur-nasir-pal (884 B.C.)
which was probably an interweaving of gold and coloured threads,
and testifies to the consummate skill of Assyrian or Babylonian
workers at that date. From Assyrian and Babylonian weavers the
conquering Persians of the time of Darius derived their celebrity as weavers and
users of splendid stuffs. Herodotus describes the corselet given by Amasis king of Egypt to the Minerva of Lindus and how it was inwoven or embroidered
with gold. Darius, we are told, wore a war mantle on which were figured (probably inwoven)
two golden hawks as if pecking at each other. Alexander
the Great is said to have found Eastern kings and princes
arrayed in robes of gold and
purple. More than two hundred years later than Alexander the Great
was the king of Pergamos (the third bearing the name Attalus) who
gave much attention to working in metals and is mentioned by Pliny as having invented weaving
with gold, hence the historic Attalic cloths. There are several
references in Roman writings to costumes and stuffs woven and
embroidered with gold threads and the Graeco-Roman
chryso-phrygium and the Roman auri-phrygium are
evidences not only of Roman work with gold threads but also of its
indebtedness to Phrygian sources. The famous tunics of Agrippina
and those of Heliogabalus are said to have been of
tissues made entirely with gold threads, whereas the robes which
Marcus Aurelius found in the treasury of Hadrian, as well as the costumes sold at the
dispersal of the wardrobe
of Commodus, were different in character, being of fine linen and
possibly even of silken stuffs inwoven or embroidered with gold
threads. The same description is perhaps correct of the reputedly
splendid hangings with which King Dagobert decorated the early medieval oratory of St Denis. Reference to these and many such stuffs is
made by the respectively contemporary or almost contemporary
writers; and a very full and interesting work by MonsieurFrancisque Michel (Paris,
1852) is still a standard book for consultation in respect of the
history of silk, gold and silver
stuffs.

From indications such as these, as well as those of later date,
one sees broadly that the art of weaving and embroidering with gold
and silver threads passed from one great city to another,
travelling as a rule westward. Babylon, Tarsus, Bagdad, Damascus, the islands of Cyprus and Sicily, Constantinople, Venice and southern Spain appear successively in the process of time
as famous centres of these much-prized manufactures. During the middle ages
European royal personages and high ecclesiastical dignitaries used
cloth and tissues of gold and silver for their state and ceremonial
robes, as well as for costly hangings and decoration; and various
names - ciclatoun, tartarium, naques or nac, baudekin or baldachin
(Bagdad) and tissue - were
applied to textiles in the making of which gold threads were almost
always introduced in combination with others. The thin flimsy paper
known as tissue paper is so called because it originally was placed
between the folds of gold "tissue" (or weaving) to prevent the
contiguous surfaces from fraying each other. Under the articles
dealing with carpets, embroidery, lace and tapestry will be found notices of the
occasional use in such productions of gold and silver threads. Of
early date in the history of European weaving are rich stuffs
produced in Southern Spain by Moors, as well as by Saracenic and Byzantine
weavers at Palermo and
Constantinople in the 12th century, in which metallic threads were
freely used. Equally esteemed at about the same period were
corresponding stuffs made in Cyprus, whilst for centuries later the
merchants in such fabrics eagerly sought for and traded in Cyprus
gold and silver threads. Later the actual manufacture of them was
not confined to Cyprus, but was also carried on by Italian thread and trimming
makers from the 14th century onwards. For the most part the gold
threads referred to were of silver gilt. In rare instances of
middle-age Moorish or Arabian fabrics the gold threads are made
with strips of parchment
or paper gilt and still rarer are instances of the use of real gold
wire.

In India the preparation of
varieties of gold and silver threads is an ancient and important
art. The "gold wire" of the manufacturer has been and is as a rule
silver wire gilt, the silver wire being, of course, composed of
pure silver. The wire is drawn by means of simple draw-plates, with
rude and simple appliances, from rounded bars of silver, or
gold-plated silver, as the case may be. The wire is flattened into
strip, tinsel or ribbon-like
form, by passing fourteen or fifteen strands simultaneously, over a
fine, smooth, round-topped anvil
and beating each as it passes with a heavy hammer having a slightly convex surface. Such strips or tinsel of wire so
flattened are woven into Indian soniri, tissue or cloth of gold, the web or warp being composed entirely of
golden strips, and ruperi, similar tissue of silver. Other
gold and silver threads suitable for use in embroidery, pillow and needlepoint lace
making, &c., consist of fine strips of flattened wire wound round cores of orange (in the
case of silver, white) silk thread so as to completely cover them.
Wires flattened or partially flattened are also twisted into
exceedingly fine spirals and much used for heavy embroideries.
Spangles for embroideries, &c., are made from spirals of
comparatively stout wire, by cutting them down ring by ring, laying
each C-like ring on an anvil, and by a smart blow with a hammer
flattening it out into a thin round disk with a slit extending from
the centre to one edge. The demand for many kinds of loom-woven and embroidered gold and
silver work in India is immense, and the variety of textiles so
ornamented is also very great, chief amongst which are the golden
or silvery tinsel fabrics known as kincobs.

Amongst Western communities the demand for gold and silver
embroideries and braid lace now
exists chiefly in connexion with naval, military and other uniforms, masonic insignia,
court costumes, public and private liveries, ecclesiastical robes
and draperies, theatrical dresses, &c.

The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the
woven braid lace or ribbon trade varies, but in all cases the
proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold braid
wire is drawn from a bar containing
90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, and plated with 3 of gold. On an average
each ounce troy of a bar so
plated is drawn into 1500 yds. of wire; and therefore about 16
grains of gold cover i m. of wire. (A. S. C.)